How to easily transfer your Thunderbird email to a new computer

Migrating email and Thunderbird settings between computers may seem complicated, but it's not. This guide will show you how to efficiently transfer your Thunderbird profile to retain all messages, email accounts, and settings on a new computer.

Thunderbird is one of the most popular email clients. It is based on the so-called profile folder, which separates the user data from the application files and stores all user data, including setups for all user-defined accounts and emails.

This solution's advantage is that when changing computers, the user can quickly transfer all their data to the new device without needing to reconfigure email accounts or download correspondence again in Thunderbird.

To transfer user data stored in the Thunderbird email client, launch the application and click the menu icon (three horizontal lines) on the title bar. Select the Help option and then Troubleshooting Information.

In the displayed window, in the Application Basics section, find the Profile Folder entry and click Open Folder.

Windows Explorer will display the user's profile. Close Mozilla Thunderbird, go up three levels in the folder structure, locate the Thunderbird folder, right-click on it, and from the context menu, select the Copy option.

Next, paste the copied folder onto any external storage device of adequate size, such as a USB drive. Now, move to the target computer, connect the previously used storage device, copy the profile folder, and launch the Thunderbird application.

To display the profile folder in Windows Explorer on the target computer, follow the same steps as before. Go up three levels in the folder structure and then paste the user data folder. When the system prompt appears, choose to replace the current data.

Done. After launching the Thunderbird application on the target computer, you will have access to all your email accounts and messages within them.